Official documents on paper will be replaced by digital ones in Ho Chi Minh City from next year as part of the city's public administration reforms.

Residents undergoing administrative processing at Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Construction (Photo: dtinews.vn)

During his meeting with the city's authorities on 15 November, Mr Tran Vinh Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, requested that administrative agencies would no longer send official documents in paper form from 1 January 2017.

For now, he asked the administrative agencies to send a digital version of every official document.

The move aims to reduce time spent responding to citizens’ complaints instead of keeping them waiting for up to 8 days.

According to Mr Tuyen, by abandoning hard copies, the committee’s office is estimated to save more than 1 billion VND (44,710 USD) a year.  He added that digital technology not only saves printing costs and preserves human resources but also reduces traffic jams as fewer post office staff must deliver documents.

He noted that the proposal should be presented next month so that digital signatures can be used in documents that are sent from district level to the city level at the beginning of next year.

The city is building an integrated, open source data centre amongst authorities, government agencies, enterprises and citizens.

It is expected that by 2020, all public administrative services of the city will be provided via an interconnected online system.

(Source: VNA/DA NANG Today)